Top Cat Begins

"Top Cat Begins" (Don Gato: El Inicio de la Pandilla, 2015) is an animated family comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Director Andrés Couturier built a feature-length prequel to the classic 1961 Hanna-Barbera cartoon — telling the story of how Top Cat showed up in Manhattan with nothing and assembled the gang that fans already know.

The city belongs to the menacing Mr. Croco, who collects from every block without exception. Top Cat doesn't plan to pay. Scheming his way through the borough, he picks up each future crew member one by one — Choo-Choo, Benny, Brain and the rest introduced with their own small backstory before joining the fold.

The film is clearly aimed at two audiences simultaneously: kids who've never seen the original series and their parents who grew up on it. Getting the jokes to land across both age groups without dumbing anything down is harder than it looks, and the film mostly pulls it off. Stream "Top Cat Begins" online on iFILM.